IronDad/SpiderSon One-shots

Fever Dream

Third Person POV:
Word Count: 1,449
Spooktober 2022 Day Twelve: Delirium

As a genius, billionaire, retired playboy, philanthropist and newly found father figure, it was Tony's job to run constantly. He had to always be ready. Always aware. He had to know when the next meeting was. He had to be ready for any sort of call. The billionaire part wasn't too hard. He just had to occasionally watch the splurging to avoid weird bank phone calls. Still, the man was always ready for anything. Most of the time, that was because of caffeine. He stayed up night after night time and time again. For what? Well, most of the time, it was working on a project. Sometimes it was for a late business meeting or a time zone difference. A few times, it was because his spider-kid decided to do something dumb and got hurt. Those were the worst types of nights.

Maybe that's why Tony had gotten sick. Not even a week ago, he had stayed up for almost five days in a row. On top of that, the flu was going around the compound. Pepper had it, so it wasn't really a shock that Tony had gotten it. Maybe he wouldn't have been hit as hard if he had a proper sleep schedule and ate something other than coffee beans.

All this to say Tony was sick. Really sick. He had a pretty high fever. It hadn't reached dangerous levels, but it was getting close. He was throwing up all of the time and he was just downright miserable. Well, partially miserable. He was currently living his best fever dream life. Well, sort of. Despite feeling like an absolute piece of shit, he was living on an all-time high.

In some sort of delirium, Tony found himself scrolling through his contact list on his phone. He wasn't exactly sure what led him to doing that, but here he was. For being a pretty famous guy, he really didn't have that many phone numbers actually saved to his phone. There were actually very few. You could count the number of numbers he had saved into his phone with all his fingers and some of his toes. Not a whole lot.

Tony stopped at Peter's contact. Spider-Kid. He stared at it for a few seconds. He doesn't remember why he chose the name Spider-kid as his contact name for the kid. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Peter informed him of an inside joke he and Harley had. They would always call him Iron-dad. Why he decided to embrace it was an entirely different story.

After staring at his name for a few seconds, he pressed the call button and brought the phone up to his ear. Tony didn't realize how late it was. Despite how late it was, the phone didn't even get through the first ring before Peter picked up. "Hey, Mr. Stark. How are you feeling?"

Did he tell the kid he was sick? Tony didn't remember. He might have. They did miss a lab day because Tony was sick. It would have made sense. "I'm feeling preeeeetty okay," he said, drawing out the word. "How are you feeling, there, bucko?" He blinked for a long second.

Peter was silent for a few seconds. Tony definitely didn't sound like himself. He knew he was sick. Happy had told him the man had the flu and to stay away. Of course, he phrased it a little nicer than that, but still. Peter understood. He didn't want to bother Tony when he was sick. Maybe this was sickness, but he could tell that Tony wasn't fully there. He planned in his head to disregard everything that was said in this conversion. "Oh, I'm feeling fine." Peter paused for a second. "What did you call for?"

Shrugging, Tony leaned back into his pillows. "Oh, nothing. I was just bored." He blinked for a longer second this time. He was starting to get tired. Figures. He just started talking to Peter, which he desperately missed. "I miss you." He really did. He didn't like to admit how much he missed the kid when he wasn't around. He missed hearing his voice talk about mindless things. He missed watching him attempting to bake. He missed watching Star Wars with him. "Like, a lot."

Peter chuckled lightly as he closed his geometry book. He had just finished his late night studies. "I miss you too," he said as he stood up from his desk. He did a little stretch before walking towards his bed. "Why are you up, Mr. Stark? You're supposed to be resting when you're sick, not staying up super late." He flopped down onto his bed with a grunt. His eyes were also heavy with sleep, but he would stay awake until Mr. Stark got off of the phone.

Tony's eyes widened. He pulled the phone away from his face and saw that it was nearly three o'clock in the morning. "Holy shit. I didn't realize how late it was." He paused, taking a deep breath. "But wait, shouldn't you be asleep? It's a school night." Tony sat up. He wouldn't be able to get over to Peter's apartment and make sure he was asleep, but he would damn well try to if he had to. Sickness be damned.

"Oh, I was just studying for a geometry test I have to take in the morning," Peter said. He stifled a yawn as he got off of his bed. He put his phone on speaker, placing it on his bed as he started to change from his school clothes into pajamas. "I couldn't fall asleep earlier when I tried, so I decided to make use of my time rather than lie in bed and keep trying to sleep." He threw his dirty shirt onto the floor and grabbed his pajama shirt off of the bed.

That made Tony relax. "Well, that isn't too bad." It really wasn't. He wasn't patrolling, which was good. If he patrolled, that would have been a whole other story. He probably patrolled earlier that night, but he hadn't been out late patrolling. That was good. "I'm sorry you couldn't sleep."

Peter tugged on some flannel pants and flopped back down onto his bed. "No biggie. It happens a lot." He sighed, placing his phone on his chest as he looked at the glowing stars on his roof. He remembered looking at the constellation book he rented from the library while he placed the stars on his roof. Ben had helped him with that. His favorite one had to be Aquila. He also liked Triangulum, but that was probably due to his love of geometry.

Tony and Peter were silent for a few minutes. Nothing much to say or exchange. Just silence was comforting. Tony was half asleep. So was Peter.

It wasn't until Peter was about to suggest hanging up that Tony spoke.

"You know I love you kid, right?"

After that, Peter's eyes were wide open. He sat up in his bed and stared at his phone like it was foreign. Of course he knew that Tony cared about him. He had learned to accept that over the past couple of months. But love? That was a very strong word, especially coming from Tony. It was something that unless it was life or death, you don't ever expect to leave the man's mouth. It was that big of a deal. To hear Tony say that, fever dreamed up or not, was surreal. It brought tears into Peter's eyes. "Yeah." He paused, smiling a little. "Yeah, I do. And I love you, Tony."

A big smile formed on Tony's face. "Thanks, kid." He yawned and his eyes started to droop. "I think I am going to go to bed now."

Peter nodded. "Of course. I hope you have a good night. Thanks for calling."

They hung up after a few short goodbyes. Tony fell right to sleep, not a worry in his soul. He didn't really understand what he just did. The reality of what he said would hit him later. But, for now, he didn't care. He just slept.

Peter, on the other hand, was now wide awake. The words were playing on repeat in his head. You know I love you kid, right? Of course he did. Of course Tony loved Peter. He loved him like a father loves his son. That was all Peter could ask for. He thought about it until he fell asleep, dreaming of only happy things because of that.

Fever dream or not, it was all true. Tony loved Peter. And Peter loved Tony. It was just another step into their father/son relationship.

That's it for this chapter! Remember to drink some water, eat something, take medicine (if you have to), and rest today. You did a good job and I am proud of you :)
Till next time
- Storm